TRAI’s verdict of shutting the door on differential pricing is truly visionary

Free Basics — which till September 2015 was known as the less egalitarian-sounding Internet.org —was no god’s gift to the less well-off, but a carefully designed plan to inch towards digital monopolism in IndiaFebruary 09, 2016, 09:54 IST

By Tathagata Bhattacharya

On Monday, the country’s apex telecom regulatory policy body finally put all speculations, vis-à-vis the issue of differential pricing for data services, at rest. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has put out regulations that stand clearly against differential pricing and are in favour of upholding net neutrality.

“No service provider shall offer or charge discriminatory tariffs for data services on the basis of content,” it states without beating about the bush.

It adds, “No service provider shall enter into any arrangement, agreement or contract, by whatever name called, with any person, natural or legal, that has the effect of discriminatory tariffs for data services being offered or charged to the consumer on the basis of content.”

But ‘The Prohibition of Discriminatory Tariffs for Data Services Regulations, 2016’ does not just stop Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg and other players from rolling out the Free Basics programme in India.

The Trai directive goes much further to vindicate the stand of net neutrality crusaders who had called Facebook’s bluff a long, long time ago. That Free Basics — which till September 2015 was known as the less egalitarian-sounding Internet.org —was no god’s gift to the less well-off, but a carefully designed plan to inch towards digital monopolism in India in the garb of a philanthropic venture, was for everyone to see.

But now that Trai has pounded its gavel on the matter, one would like to think that those who thought about the anti-Free Basics campaign as being ‘antinational’, ‘unnecessary fear-mongering’ and just another ‘conspiracy theory’ will begin to see the light.

Blind Spots in Coverage

However, the Trai text does have quite a few grey spots that need to be highlighted as well.

Under the section titled ‘Consequences of contravention of these regulations’, it says, “If a service provider is in contravention of these regulations, the Authority may, without prejudice to the terms and conditions of licence, or the Act or rules or regulations or orders made, or directions issued, thereunder, direct the service provider to withdraw such tariff and also order such service provider to pay, by way of financial disincentive, an amount of rupees fifty thousand for each day of contravention, subject to a maximum of rupees fifty lakh: Provided that no order for payment of any amount by way of financial disincentive shall be made by the Authority unless the service provider has been given a reasonable opportunity of representing against the contravention of the regulation.”

Now, the same text, under the head of ‘Prohibition of discriminatory tariffs,’ says, “The decision of the Authority as to whether a service provider is in contravention of this regulation shall be final and binding.”

This seems to clash with the last part of the earlier paragraph. Not just that, whether a fine of Rs 50,000 a day — and a maximum of Rs 50 lakh - will carry the requisite punitive weight to dissuade telecom players and internet service providers (ISPs) from breaking the rules also needs to be seen.

Perhaps, a temporary cancellation of the company’s licence would have been a better measure. But nonetheless, the Trai decision puts India in league with countries like Chile, Brazil, the Netherlands and the US where net neutrality is held to be sacrosanct and content can’t be differently priced.

In July 2015, the Department of Telecom Panel on Net Neutrality had voiced its opposition against projects such as Facebook’s Internet.org, which would have been seen as Facebook and its partner services deriving preferential access.

But this writing on the wall became clear a few weeks ago when Trai suspended Free Basics, saying that it violated principles of net neutrality. Trai had, in a January 18 letter to Facebook, reprimanded the social media company for a campaign the regulatory body deemed an “orchestrated opinion poll”.

It added that the company had encouraged Facebook users to submit a pre-written letter that didn’t respond to the four questions that Trai had asked commentators to address, which included the issue of differential pricing.

Facebook’s massive media blitzkrieg to garner support for its Free Basics programme included insertions of multi-page advertisements in national and regional dailies, outdoor hoardings, television spots and some wilily programmed Facebook notification where a click meant you supported Free Basics.

Finally, Facebooked!

The campaign for net neutrality was united and less flashy. But the united people put the right pressure on the regulatory body. It is not every day that the people of the majority world manage to ward off pressure from a global behemoth such as Facebook and its giant partners such as Reliance in the Free Basics enterprise.

Which is why this is no small victory. One can be hopeful that the ripples created here in India will give rise to waves in other countries that are trying to protect their citizens’ unbridled access to the world of the internet. Trai sent out an extremely powerful message out to the world on Monday. May others follow suit.